Anne Morrissey

Treatment options for wastewater effluents from pharmaceutical companies

In recent years, concerns about the occurrence and fate of active pharmaceutical ingredients, solvents, intermediates and raw materials that could be present in water and wastewater including pharmaceutical industry wastewater has gained increasing attention. Traditional wastewater treatment methods, such as activated sludge, are not sufficient for the complete removal of active pharmaceutical ingredients and other wastewater constituents from these waters. As a result, complementary treatment methods such as membrane filtration, reverse osmosis and activated carbon are often used in conjunction with the traditional methods for treatment of industrial wastewater. Most of the literature published to date has been on the treatment of municipal wastewater. However, there is a growing body of research that looks at the presence of active pharmaceutical ingredients in industrial wastewater, the treatment of these wastewaters and the removal rates. This article, reviews these treatment methods and includes both traditional methods and advanced oxidation processes. The paper concludes by showing that the problem of pharmaceuticals in wastewaters cannot be solved merely by adopting end of pipe measures. At source measures, such as replacement of critical chemicals, reduction in raw material consumption should continue to be pursued as the top priority.

Occurrence of pharmaceutical compounds in wastewater process streams in Dublin, Ireland

The aim of this work is to establish baseline levels of pharmaceuticals in three wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) streams in the greater Dublin region to assess the removal efficiency of the selected WWTPs and to investigate the existence of any seasonal variability. Twenty compounds including several classes of antibiotics, acidic and basic pharmaceuticals, and prescribed medications were selected for investigation using a combination of membrane filtration, solid phase extraction (SPE) cleanup, and liquid chromatography–electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry. Fourteen of the selected compounds were found in the samples. Increased effluent concentrations, compared to influent concentrations, for a number of compounds (carbamazepine, clotrimazole, propranolol, nimesulide, furosemide, mefenamic acid, diclofenac, metoprolol, and gemfibrozil) were observed. The detected concentrations were generally below toxicity levels and based on current knowledge are unlikely to pose any threat to aquatic species. Mefenamic acid concentrations detected in both Leixlip and Swords effluents may potentially exert ecotoxicological effects with maximum risk quotients (i.e., ratio of predicted exposure concentration to predicted no effect concentration) of 4.04 and 1.33, respectively.

The potential for a suite of isotope and chemical markers to differentiate sources of nitrate contamination: A review

Nitrate is naturally found within the environment as part of the nitrogen cycle. However, anthropogenic inputs have greatly increased nitrate loads within ground and surface waters. This has had a severe impact on aquatic ecosystems and has given rise to health considerations in humans and livestock. Therefore, the identification of nitrate sources is important in preserving water quality and achieving sustainability of our water resources. Nitrate sources can be determined based on the nitrate nitrogen (N) and oxygen (O) isotopic compositions (δ(15)N, δ(18)O). However, sewage and manure have overlapping δ(15)N and δ(18)O values making their differentiation on this basis problematic. The specific differentiation between sources of faecal contamination is of particular importance, because the risk to humans is usually considered higher from human faecal contamination (sewage) than from animal faecal contamination. This review summarises the current state of knowledge in using isotope tracers to differentiate various nitrate sources and identifies potential chemical tracers for differentiating sewage and manure. In particular, an in depth review of the current state of knowledge regarding the necessary considerations in using chemical markers, such as pharmaceuticals and food additives, to differentiate sewage and manure sources of nitrate contamination will be given, through an understanding of their use, occurrence and fate, in order to identify the most suitable potential chemical markers.

An SPE LC-MS/MS method for the analysis of human and veterinary chemical markers within surface waters: an environmental forensics application.

In this study, the use of co-occurring discriminators of sewage and manure was assessed as a potential way to disentangle sewage and manure sources. A suite of human and veterinary derived chemical markers, which includes pharmaceuticals and compound such as food additives, has been identified for this purpose. The suite was selected in such a manner as to provide additional source characterisation, e.g. differentiating raw versus treated sewage inputs. An SPE-LC-MS/MS method was developed and validated for the determined suite of chemical markers with a detection limit of up to 50 pg L(-1). This represents one of the lowest limits of detection for pharmaceuticals reported in literature. To illustrate the suitability of the proposed method to differentiate sewage and manure inputs to surface water bodies, results from surface water samples collected at monitoring sites corresponding to specific land use types within Ireland are discussed.

Attitudes towards the use and disposal of unused medications in two European Countries.

The use of pharmaceuticals has led to considerable improvements in human and animal health. As a consequence of disposal also needs to be considered, making pharmaceuticals a waste management concern. While the disposal of waste pharmaceutical residues through the wastewater stream is widely studied, there are limited data on the disposal of unused pharmaceuticals. It is essential to ascertain why such a paucity of data exists, to identify the disposal strategies that would be accepted by the community and to incorporate this knowledge into an educational campaign. An understanding of current disposal practices and the relevance of the various routes of unused pharmaceutical entry into the environment can help inform policy development and ensure that the disposal methods are adequate to protect human health and the environment. These considerations were the focus of an online survey of current attitudes and practices related to the use and disposal of medication conducted within Malta and the Republic of Ireland in early 2012. 1130 response were received. Although located within different European regions, the health systems of the two countries are similar; the total annual expenditure per capita on health at US

A SPE-LC-MS/MS Method for the Detection of Low Concentrations of Pharmaceuticals in Industrial Waste Streams

4952 and US

Waste management models and their application to sustainable waste management.

4264 in Ireland and Malta respectively. However, costs for a General Pratictioner (GP) visit in Ireland are around 4–5 times those in Malta.

Preparation and characterization of low fouling novel hybrid ultrafiltration membranes based on the blends of GO−TiO2 nanocomposite and polysulfone for humic acid removal

A SPE-LC-MS/MS method was developed and validated for the determination of three active pharmaceutical ingredients [API A (3-([2-(diaminomethyleneamino)thiazol-4-yl]methylthio)-N′-sulfamoyl propanimid amide, API B 5-[(2 R)-2-[2-(2-ethoxyphenoxy)ethylamino]propyl]-2-methoxybenzenesulfonamide hydrochloride, API C 1-azabicyclo[2.2.2]octan-8-yl (1S)-1-phenyl-3,4-dihydro-1H-isoquinoline-2-carboxylate] in the wastewater of a chemical synthesis production facility. The SPE-LC-MS/MS method was validated in actual influent and effluent samples. Linearity, LOD, LOQ, repeatability, intermediate precision, and recovery were determined. An LOQ of 400 μg · L−1, 1.0 μg · L−1, and 6 μg · L−1, repeatability of 2.5% CV, 14.8% CV, and 11.9% CV, intermediate precision of 7.8% CV, 11.0% CV, and 8.7% CV and SPE recovery of 114%, 103%, and 91% was determined for API A, B, and C, respectively, in influent. An LOQ of 400 μg · L−1, 0.8 μg · L−1, and 6 μg · L−1, repeatability of 2.0% CV, 11.0% CV, and 10.9% CV, intermediate precision of 1.7% CV, 6.8% CV, and 10.2% CV and SPE recovery of 116%, 96%, and 115% was established for API A, B, and C, respectively, in effluent. Coefficients of correlation for each analyte were >0.9301 confirming the linearity of the method. The LC-MS/MS method was used for an on-going monitoring program for these pharmaceuticals in wastewater. The method development techniques, validation procedures, and results from real wastewater samples are presented in this paper.